sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format (Transact-SQL)

Returns the current vardecimal storage format state of a database or enables a database for vardecimal storage format. In SQL Server 2012, user databases are always enabled. Requires SQL Server 2005, Service Pack 2 or later. 

Syntax

sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format [ [ @dbname = ] 'database_name'] 
    [ , [ @vardecimal_storage_format = ] { 'ON' | 'OFF' } ] 
[;]

Arguments

• [ @dbname= ] 'database_name'
  Is the name of the database for which the storage format is to be changed. database_name is sysname, with no default. If the database name is omitted, the vardecimal storage format status of all the databases in the instance of SQL Server are returned.

• [ @vardecimal\_storage\_format= ] {'ON'|'OFF'}
  Specifies whether the vardecimal storage format is enabled. @vardecimal\_storage\_format can be ON or OFF. The parameter is varchar(3), with no default. If a database name is provided but @vardecimal\_storage\_format is omitted, the current setting of the specified database is returned. This argument has no effect on SQL Server 2008 or later versions.

Return Code Values

0 (success) or 1 (failure)

Result Sets

If the database storage format cannot be changed, sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format returns an error. If the database is already in the specified state, the stored procedure has no effect.

If the @vardecimal\_storage\_format argument is not provided, returns the columns Database Name and the Vardecimal State.

Remarks

sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format returns the vardecimal state but cannot change the vardecimal state.

sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format will fail in the following circumstances:

• There are active users in the database.

• The database is enabled for mirroring.

• The edition of SQL Server does not support vardecimal storage format.

To change the vardecimal storage format state to OFF, a database must be set to simple recovery mode. When a database is set to simple recovery mode, the log chain is broken. Perform a full database backup after you set the vardecimal storage format state to OFF.

Changing the state to OFF will fail if there are tables using vardecimal database compression. To change the storage format of a table, use sp_tableoption. To determine which tables in a database are using vardecimal storage format, use the OBJECTPROPERTY function and search for the TableHasVarDecimalStorageFormat property, as shown in the following example.

USE AdventureWorks2012 ;
GO
SELECT name, object_id, type_desc
FROM sys.objects 
 WHERE OBJECTPROPERTY(object_id, 
   N'TableHasVarDecimalStorageFormat') = 1 ;
GO

Examples

The following code enables compression in the AdventureWorks2012 database, confirms the state, and then compresses decimal and numeric columns in the Sales.SalesOrderDetail table.

USE master ;
GO

EXEC sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format 'AdventureWorks2012', 'ON' ;
GO

-- Check the vardecimal storage format state for
-- all databases in the instance.
EXEC sp_db_vardecimal_storage_format ;
GO

USE AdventureWorks2012 ;
GO

EXEC sp_tableoption 'Sales.SalesOrderDetail', 'vardecimal storage format', 1 ;
GO

See Also

Reference

Database Engine Stored Procedures (Transact-SQL)